Atomic Tangerine and the Living Heart
by kufununabob
Summary: Luna and Draco meet as children become friends and make impressions on each other. This is there story from there childhood to Hogwarts till the end of their lives. Luna's mother's death is more complicated than anyone ever thought, Draco's childhood wasn't all sneers and smug smiles and they can be so much more than they ever imagined, but will they let themselves. Based on colors
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Everything was on fire. All the screams and shouts and spells were burnt up and muddled together in a cacophony of ashes as it burned; as Hogwarts burned.

The stone walls bled, covered in rain and magic. The magic that was weaved into the very walls of the school were coming undone as each curse hit the bricks and broke them up. The school was bleeding and trying so very hard to scab over but the fire kept burning.

He was dressed in black; he always wore black now days. The color green hurt too much. The color red taunted him. Yellow was ridiculous. Blue. Blue made him feel things he can't feel. If he wore blue he wouldn't be able to do what he knew he must.

It's because of her, it's for her. It was always her.

A loud bang breaks through the burning and everything is now very real and very, very fast. He wants to look down as he runs but he doesn't. He looks up and dodges spells and casts his own as he runs with hell on his heels.

His chest is splitting open and then slamming shut. This is the heaviest breath that he's ever had and yet he can't get enough air.

"Krosprillies!" The ground blows up underneath him in a flash of terrible orange light and he's flown into a wall.

"Urrhurhg," the walls won't stop spinning and not in the way they normally do. The white of his hair is tattered in red. He doesn't know where his wand is, and if he's honest he doesn't know anything is, except that damned sword. He picks it up by the wrong end and slices his hands as he staggers into a stand.

The sword is in his hands the right way now as he stumbles past all the fighting into a dark corner. A corner that's untouched somehow and of course it is because she's there.

All blonde and beautiful. Her silver eyes always so curious and knowing, her wand is shaking in her hands, because she knows what's going to happen, but he doesn't; all he knows is that he loves this girl. This girl who is all strange and caring and beautiful and smart and bleeding. Bleeding.

He doesn't remember shoving the sword into her torso but there it is. He's done it. What he had to do. He pulls it out and throws as far away as possible.

It's like a great light has left her body and she crumples to the floor. He doesn't catch her.

Then somehow, a miracle he thinks, she's in his arms.

"Please don't die, please, please. PLEASE!" he vaguely recognizes the voice as his own as his hand slams shut over the part of her that's broken. She's smiling though labored breaths. She smiles that, small, off-putting, wonderful smile of hers.

"I have to," a hand comes up to touch his face and it's so her so he leans into it.

A rough crying noise left his throat as he rocked her. As he cried and she smiled.

"Hey?" He shook his head and shut his eyes.

"Hey?" He voice was stronger, but it was trembling now. He forced himself to look at her.

"Tell me the story of us."


	2. Electric Crimson red and Olive grey

**Chapter One**

"Can I borrow twenty quid?"

"Fuck you Rodney ya' still owe me ten from…"

The London street was busy and colored different shades of grey with pops of color that would wiggle or warble past and then be gone much too soon in Luna's opinion. Luna, a little girl of six, was sitting on a bench next to an old man waiting for the bus. She looked to the newspaper in the man's hand and was disappointed to find the pictures weren't moving; that was Luna's favorite part.

"Shlush," the shave ice stained her lips red and spilled over on her pale chin and splattered over her hands. She was such a tiny thing. Skinny and bright. She was a star from far away.

"Luna!" the voice of a mother yelled out. The little girl abruptly threw the cold confectionary on the ground and jumped off the bench in one flowed motion. She was a fairy as she ran down the streets of London. Her bright yellow dress with dark falcons printed on the layers, fluttered around her; she was a tulip. Or was she?

"There you are. You're all red and yellow. You're a canary!" said the mother as she swung Luna into a hug.

Luna wasn't a star, or a fairy, or a flower, she wasn't even a bird. Luna was a witch.

"Her name was Miguel, she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy," Draco's mother liked to put on records when his father was away.

His father thought it was muggle, so Draco would sneer and call it muggle, and his father would look so proud. The truth was though, he loved them. That was magic; a piece of time, that Draco could hold forever and bring back to life whenever he wanted. Well, whenever his father was gone. The sound of Narcissa's heels clapped along to the song as she chased her son down the halls. The walls were old and sleepy. They were waiting to fall apart and chip at the fringe; though that damn laughter kept them up all their lives. He giggled a child's giggle, because he was six and everything was okay.

"I've got you, you weasel you!" as she twirled and twirled them to the sound of the music Draco had never been happier. No magic, just simply happy, muggle (sneer), fun.

But Draco wasn't a weasel, and things wouldn't be simple and muggle, because Draco was a wizard.


	3. Balsam green pond

**Chapter Two**

"Hi."

"Hello."

"I'm Dra-" "Did you-"

"Sorry," she smiled up at him.

"It's okay," The little boy sat down next to her, he didn't like the grass. It was pokey and itchy and smelled too much like how he thought smart people smelled. He was waiting for his father to be done talking to the man inside the weird house. It had too many colors and shapes to look like a real house, even for wizard house, all things considered, etcetera.

"Did you know that there is a tint of orange called atomic tangerine?" the girl looked all far off and jumpy as she stared into and passed the pond. He was worried that any second she would flop into the mess of moss and water and pebbles and get gunk all over his coat.

"Yeah," liar. She turned to him again and smiled.

"What color do you fancy my dress is?"

"Why do you sound weird?" He picked at the grass that grew up along the tree they were shaded by.

"My Dad got this thing in a muggle shop. It's called a "tally" or "telly". I can't really remember, but the people in the pictures talk like that. I think it's really neat. Or Radical, as they would say," her voice was easily excitable and flowed smoothly and was high pitched and staggering in the way a child's voice is.

"Radical?" Draco tested the word on his tongue and made a face.

"Yeah I think so too."

"Well your skirt's atomic tangerine." He looked smug as he smiled at her. There could be no other reason why she asked and the weird triangle-y dress was almost orange. She would think he was _radical_.

She smiled at him in surprise.

"Nope," he deflated.

"You're close though, it's peach. Weird how so many colors are fruits," she stared at the sun while she said that, it made Draco feel uneasy so he grabbed her head and turned it down towards the pond.

"Don't do stupid things," he didn't mean to sound mean, sometimes he would say things wrong and people wouldn't like him; but the girl just smiled at him. He saw the way her face got excited and lit up and she was golden and white and blue and it struck him. He thought it was quite radical.

"Sometimes the most brilliant things are born from stupid decisions," she was so proud of herself, but she was happier that he got to hear that, "my mom taught me that the other day, I love my mom."

"I love my mom too, she plays records."

"What's a record?"

"I don't really know, but music comes out of it," more smiles.

"Do you wanna know why I like atomic tangerine?"

"Yeah."

"It attracts Porplories, they love it. It reminds them of their home in the red sea, though they're all over the place now. Under rocks in ponds, they live on a type of bacteria."

"They don't exist."

She frowned at him, and he frowned at her.

A loud bang was heard from behind them and so were the shouts of Draco's father. Draco flinched. People don't think kids know anything, but sometimes they see more than anybody else. He didn't want to leave like this, so he turned his head to say something to the girl, but she had sprung to her feet and he noticed that they were bare.

"I see one, it's small!" She announced as she pointed at the pond before running into the pond and he laughed because it was silly but his eyes were wide because _who does that sort of thing_?

"Draco!" The shout shattered everything.

Before diving head first into the pond she turned her head over her shoulder and said, "Bye Draco."

"Good b-" before he could say bye she dove into the water and he ran to his father.

That was the first time they met. Draco and Luna.


	4. Peach Punch pink woman in the Gold room

**Chapter Three**

The keys of the piano were each a different color, each one deepening a shade from pastels, to angry neon's, and back again to deep throaty colors. A rainbow of buttons attached to strings which made sad sounds that filled the procession; the funeral.

Her father couldn't stop crying and he kept trying to comfort her, because her father loved her and wanted to be strong for his little girl, but Luna couldn't shed a tear and she pushed her father away.

It hurt, it hurt so deep and struck her in her chest, a feeling so profane that it rooted itself right into her soul; and it grew and grew and grew into something dark and sad and twisted.

Luna remembered back to earlier…

There was blood on the ground. Luna put her hands in it to feel its fading warmth and when she looked up she saw her father's eyes. So different from the last time she looked into them, they were joyless, disbelieving, frightened little balls that dug deep into his face and made it look hollow and sunken.

She pressed deeper into the floor, and into where the last bits of her mother lie, in a pool, on the floor, beneath her hands.

Normally Luna was a happy child, she was unusual and smart and saw things others missed, but she had also been excitable and there had been a gleam in her eyes. That glean, that excitement, that fast talking gob, and wonderful jubilance seemed to be suffocating and dying under some heavy presence that took over the girl's body.

Luna made no sound, but tears ran down her face as she twisted her hands in the blood, she vaguely heard what could have been her father's cry.

The room started to buzz, or was that just Luna? The sound got louder and louder; the buzzing, the rumble of rubble, the falling of skies. The sound grew in the room, which was lit only by the fading daylight. The sound blasted through invisible speaker's strait into her brain and she felt like she was being crushed beneath the sound. She clasped her hands to her head and felt the wet remains soak her skin and hair and painted her red, but she was much too distracted to care, the sound was trying it's very best to crush her.

Then the clash of heels burst into the room, breaking the noise, and Luna looked up to see a pink lady, standing short, and cold, and disdainfully.

"Oh look at you, you filthy child. Now, now that's no place for you to be, especially given what has just occurred in this particular room, wouldn't you agree Mr. Lovegood?" The pink women spoke with a small smile and a shrill voice.

"She's dead," whispered the broken man sitting in the comfy chair in the corner of the room, it probably wasn't a response to the rhetorical question, but if it were, then it was the only one he had, for silence fell in the room.

The pink women strolled over to the long wooden table. The table was a mess of different shaped and sized glass bottles and beakers and flasks which each held its own tint; a personality. The table was flooded with magical things and scales and feathers and pretty colored objects and animal parts alike. The table spilled papers and ink and all sorts of writing and studies.

"It's simple really, and oh, yes, very sad," she turned around to say as her finger dragged along the edge of the table, she gave them a frown a frown so practiced and perfected that it was the fakest Luna had ever seen.

"You're wife, Mr. Lovegood, oh did she love to experiment. Not her place, though, a wizard like her. Pardon me, but, a wizard like her, so free and unthinking, an accident like this was bound to happen, this is commonly the outcome when non municipally recommended spell creators, try to write magic," Luna wanted her to shut up with her lies. Luna knew who killed her mother, and she knew that Umbridge (the pink women), knew she knew.

"She's dead," Luna wanted her father to shut up, because, yes we could all see that.

Luna clutched her hands to her chest.

_What was happening to her? _She thought. There was a darkness inside her. It was trying to eat her up and hide in her body, turn her body into an empty shell.

Luna; so young, so innocent, yet so very powerful; fought back. Luna clutched her chest even tighter and sank into the blood. She closed her eyes and scrunched up her face and let out shallow breaths. She fought so hard against the sound and she thought of her mother, but that made it worse. She thought of her father and that made her sad and weak. She thought of her anger, her hate, her fury, her revenge; but that made the sound stronger. She knew if she kept that up it would swallow her whole. She thought of a boy, and all the things they could have done, and it made her regret, but it also made her want. She wanted it, the friendship and the adventure and most of all she wanted to live. LIVE.

She sucked it all up inside her and made her face a mask, made her feelings a fog, and her expressions cryptic. She made herself less. She made herself more. She felt the sound retreat to inside her heart and she felt alive.

When Luna finally opened her eyes it was several hours later. She lied in her bed and she heard her father's sobs from some distant part of the room. She thought of a boy and smiled. She was alive. She sat up breathed in and her mother was still dead.


	5. Funshine yellow hair and Stillness tears

**Chapter Four**

Draco knew what this was. He was older now, not by much, but in just a year's time he would go be off to Hogwarts, and he knew what funerals were. He knew the house and the name and the pond, but most importantly he knew the girl.

His father tugged on his arm which hurt the bruises that sat beneath his coat. His father and mother and he wondered around the room, giving condolences. His father was there because a pure blood had died; his mother was there because his father was here. Draco was there to be the perfect son, but he just couldn't seem to live up to the expectation.

Draco saw a pond outside the through the atomic tangerine tinted window, he also saw a shadow of blonde hair and a shaking shoulder.

He snuck from his father's view and crawled under the table, near the kitchen, and finally stood again at third door strangely placed in the middle of a window, tinted a blue called "tardis", whatever that meant.

Draco became very good with colors after meeting Luna, he liked many things in life, but was fascinated with few; some things didn't deserve as much time as others, simple as that. He was captivated by magic, even with his limited ability and knowledge, he adored Quidditch though he never played in his life, he was captivated by the stories in muggle books that his mother would sneak to him, and he was obsessed with color, though he never dressed colorfully himself. He wanted to know every color there was and what it meant and why and how he could use it. One magical color was called _Dying Rose_; not found anywhere besides rocks inside of the _Theta_ _Dragon Mountain_, and if replicated perfectly (very tricky), or mined (which was much too destructive), caused lovers hearts to break upon contact. Another magical color was called _Coat of Castiel_, it was found in the blood of the Ligierio fish and when turned into a pastille cream treat and ingested caused unusual markings to appear on the skin, which would vanish in a year or so, sometimes they would return, but more often than not, they would simply die and be forgotten.

The point is he knew colors, and he blamed Luna; the girl who inspired greatness in him.

There he was, about to sneak out to see a girl whose mother had just died. He turned back to check if anyone was looking, and in the sea of black, he found his mother's eyes. His expression was poppy cocked and frightened, but she just gave him the slightest of smiles and turned her head back to the conversation and Draco knew he was loved. Just like Luna had been loved.

He slipped through the door and was met by a gust of wind and a biting chill. The familiar silhouette was still leaning against the large willow tree next to the mossy pond. Draco trotted over to the pond while sticking his bare hands in his coat pockets.

The wind swept up her long hair in all sorts of directions making her face nothing but a blonde fog, he bet he looked rather ridiculous too, his flop of blonde hair moving side to side like a cockatoo's feather.

He was going to say something; something that would be smart and make her feel better, nothing funny, just comforting and unique, because he'd bet she was sad and had enough sympathy to be sick and he wanted to be original for her.

She pulled her hair with her small hands to turn and look at him properly, he was shocked by her muted expression, she still had a wanderlust and curious look in her eye, but it the exuberance was gone and replaced by a wave of reservation and calculated cleverness. All the smart words fell from his head and he stuttered.

"I-I'm s-sorry for your loss," was all he could manage before turning his eyes to the ground to find her bare, grass-green stained feet, and puckered-cucumber painted toes.

"Me too. Draco?" her voice was further away than it had been the last time they spoke, it was like she was lost. Who wouldn't be lost, who wouldn't be joyless, and who wouldn't be curling inward?

He finally looked up to her and was afraid of the next words.

"Did you develop a stutter since the last time we spoke?" She tilted her head in bit to the side as she awaited an answer.

"No," he cleared his throat, puffed his chest out a bit, and spoke in a stronger voice the second time around, "No, I haven't. Luna. I wish-"

"If wishes were horses, then… actually, you know what? I don't know what would happen if wishes were horses," she looked deep into this young boys eyes as if looking for an answer, then turned her head towards the sun, in that way she always does, "though I doubt it would bring my mother back to life," Draco turned his stare away again, feeling ashamed of himself and not understanding why.

Suddenly she grabbed his hand and started dragging him away into the woods a few meters away from the pond. Draco looked back at the house and gave it a wary look, Luna noticed, she always the one to notice.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," there was no malice or sarcasm in her voice, a child's voice; sweet and young, but underneath that there was something touched by darkness, something that came with age.

"I'm not afraid," and he wasn't as he followed her head fast into the trees and over grown weeds and mushrooms, hand in hand.

They walked a short distance till they got to Luna's desired destination.

It was a circle of flat grass, the grass a shade deeper here, and thicker, and more watered. In the grass were small flowers or weeds, Draco couldn't tell, but the popped up, rebelliously, through the grass. The clouded sky spread a slight bit more light on this ground than it did the rest of the tall woods around them. Luna let go of Draco's hand and slipped to her knees a few paces away from him.

Her hands buried in the thick grass, playing with the small flowers. Draco didn't know what to do, he thought he should say something clever, maybe cheer her up, but sometimes Draco just wanted to be sad. Like when he returned to his room with his father's bruises, he wanted to be left alone to feel. So he said nothing and stood a few paces away. He was in company, yet completely alone, so was she, he figured.

"I've changed," Luna said while still looking down, now apparently trying to catch a tiny creature that Draco couldn't see.

"I know, but not that much, and not for worse, or better. I still think great, and I'm sorry," He didn't know why he was sorry, he just was.

"So you'll be my friend then?"

"Of course I will. I'll be your friend," he was young, but he knew today wasn't for smiling, but he just couldn't help himself.

It was better than any words he could have stuttered, so she smiled back, small and curious and absolutely Luna, this new Luna, his friend; Luna.

She stood up and kissed him on the cheek and his face burned pink, like an Arabian Sunrise Pink, he guessed by how the warmth spread across his face from the epicenter that was her lips that were dry from the cold and soft from childhood. She backed away, much less shocked than he, and turned to walk back. It took Draco a few seconds to walk again, but when he did, he followed her; and, he guessed, he never really stopped.


	6. Polar White Stationary&Ebony Field Ink

**Dear Luna,**

**I'm on the Hogwarts express right now; it's not as impressive as I thought it would be, or maybe I'm just looking at it wrong. I wish you were here; Crab and Doyle are being insufferable. I don't understand why my father wants me to be friends with them. They're not as interesting as you and they don't appreciate colours. They don't even know how to make Orange. I bet if I said Atomic Tangerine they'd think it was something to eat. I'm not miserable, they are.**

**I just know I'll be a Slytherin and I'll make my mother proud. That type of green is really called Slytherin-snake Green, it's very special. All the houses have colors like that; Midnight-Raven Blue, Deep-Gryffindor Red, and then Goldenrod-Badger.**

**I've changed into my robes and we'll be getting off soon. I'll write you another letter soon. I miss you.**

**Sincerely yours,**

**Draco**

**Dear Draco,**

**I miss you too. Whatever house you're in will be fine. I think people just want to be a part of something and the "what" is just an afterthought; even so, I think Slytherin will be good for you. Cunning and ambitious and you will be good for Slytherin, because you'll be kind to people. You were kind to me.**

**The pond in the back is turning pink, my father tells me that that's a sure sign of Poppywollocks, oh you'd love Poppywollocks Draco—they're the most unusual yellow and they sing the softest songs. Sometimes at night I think I can hear them humming beneath the water.**

**I'm the same, but I'm sure you're different by now. Not tremendously; but big, new experiences like that tend to change people. I can't wait to say hello to the new you. I already miss him and I haven't even met him yet.**

**Love,**

**Luna**

**Dear Luna,**

**I'm a Slytherin, official, finally. I have dark green ties and books with my name on the inside of them and teachers and classes and roommates. It's great and new, but sometimes I just want everyone to shut up. They really aren't as clever as they think they are.**

**You may be right about the whole "it doesn't matter" thing. Some people in Slytherin can be cruel, but all in all we're the best house out of the bunch.**

**Luna I wish you were there yesterday; I met Harry Potter; THAT Harry Potter. I don't think father will be very pleased with me, I told Crab and Doyle off the other day. It involved Potter, I think he's got more fame than sense, but I think we might be friends—casually. He's not interesting enough to be close. You're interesting Luna, and you'd love it here, magic everywhere, like usual, but now it's finally at your fingertips.**

**And Luna- Poppywollocks are not REAL. If you want to be a magical creature cataloguer you will have to find proof.**

**Hello, it's nice to meet you,**

**Draco**

**Dear Draco,**

**I'm glad you've been placed in Slytherin. It is the best house for you.**

**Though that's not a very nice thing to say about Poppywollocks, they'd be sad if I told them. If they decide to stick around till next year they'd like to meet you. Just don't call them "not real;" no I don't think they'd like that very much.**

**Crab and Doyle are not done yet, neither are you or me, but they are especially un-cooked. Give them time, though not too much of it. Time is such a valuable thing; we all want so much more of it, and what we wouldn't give for just a little bit more.**

**You've met Harry Potter; Draco that is very Radical. I wish I could have been with you, but I am enjoying my time here, on adventures, with my father. Draco I'm worried; sometimes he looks sad when he's by himself. I know he misses her. I miss her.**

**If you don't write regularly; I won't be offended; I know you'll be busy with school. I think it'll be better that way, because your teachers will be offended if you're not turning in work on time.**

**Today the sky is the colour of Periwinkle Pudding.**

**Hello again,**

**Luna**

**Dear Luna,**

**I'm sorry your father is sad; I hope you aren't sad as well, but if you were, you could tell me. I'd listen, I'll always listen.**

**You do like pudding don't you? They've got so much food during meals; it's all spread out over the table. When you come here next year we'll eat together. I refuse to sit at the Hufflepuff table so you best be a Slytherin. You'd make a good Slytherin.**

**I have my first flying lesion today; when I'm good enough I'll be on the Slytherin's Quidditch team. I saw Potter again today, him and this Weasley boy seem to be mates; when Crab and Doyle aren't filling their faces they say idiotic things. They also say things I've heard my father say; I'm sure they're just repeating words of their parents and that's what troubles me. Luna should I be more careful with who I associate with? My father would not be pleased if he thought I was equals with a non-pure blood or even worse a Mudblood like, like this show-off Granger.**

**I have to go now, I miss you.**

**Weasly's hair is Frothy-Ginger (it's ridiculous)**

**Sincerely yours,**

**Draco**

**Dear Draco,**

**Parents are a touchy subject, both you and I are too young to understand what the right thing to do is; but we do have instinct. It would be best if you used it.**

**Draco you're my only friend, people don't like me. Your father does not like my family, and if we were not Purebloods you'd never be able to see me. I feel that I would be the same if I wasn't a Pureblood and I'd hope you would still want to be my friend. You should talk to this Granger, I wish I could make friends like you do Draco—you say witty things and are great with colours- Everyone must like you.**

**My father and I will be leaving soon to the Himalayan pools of Somorty, there are some wonderful creatures there. You would love it Draco; father tells me he's never seen so many blues in his life, you'd have fun naming everyone and I would love to hear all the stories you could tell me about them.**

**I hope flying lessons went spectacularly, I miss you.**

**I found a Slytherin-Snake Green quill yesterday, it remains untouched, waiting, prepared, and excited on my desk. **

**Love,**

**Luna**

**Dear Luna,**

**We will always be friends. I promise.**

**This letter is going to be short and I'll write you another letter soon.**

**Flying lessons went spectacularly wrong; Crab and Doyle stole some Gryffindor's hawk-blood-crimson ball thing. Potter made a show of himself and I, tired of waiting, snuck away on my broom and received none of the love Potter did. I'm glad Potter did it, but I wished I could have been the one- sometimes I feel like a supporting character in my own story.**

**I miss you.**

**Your friend,**

**Draco**

Draco was eating breakfast in the dining hall when another letter from Luna arrived. A snow white barn owl dropped the larger envelop on his newly empty plate.

Draco smiled as he picked up the unusual envelope. The envelope was Midnight-Bayou Blue and had tiny Fillory Yellow dots splattered across it. The large envelope looked like space and Draco's smile got wider.

When he opened the envelop a small trinket fell in his lap. It was a shining ball that looked like weaved crystal; the strands were a mixture of Hush-Hush pink, and Apricot Butter orange, and Summer's Mint green. The pendent was attached to a thin leather string loop. He promptly slipped it into his breast pocket and pressed it close to heart before he read the letter.

**Dear Draco,**

**Something is terribly wrong. My father and I left a day early for trip. Something happened and something is here Draco.**

**I went out back to the pond, to check on the Poppywollocks, and they were all dead. There was clump of dark pink film and the water's edge and a horrible silence, something killed them. I think it was fright.**

**Draco, I looked out to the woods and it was covered in shadows and a part of me, a part of me deep inside screamed and wanted to leap towards the shadow, but I ran back inside before the buzzing could get louder, oh yes, I had forgotten about the buzzing.**

**I am afraid Draco. Not for me, I'm away now, away from whatever was there and father says we'll bring back spirit cleansing charms and potions. I am afraid for you Draco. You are trapped. Please be careful, do not go into the woods, do not explore dark tunnels, stay away from mysteriously locked doors.**

**I know it's tempting to do the exact opposite, but please Draco, please. Do not.**

**P.S**

**I found this pendent in while exploring my mother's work room, it's charmed. I don't exactly don't know what it wards off, but it spoke to me. I know it will protect you. Something is coming and it will involve a mirror.**

**Love,**

**Luna**

The pendent burned a hole through his chest. Draco abruptly left the table and almost ran out of the dining hall and into a semi empty corridor. He pressed his back into a pillar and reread the letter and reread the letter and reread the letter. Finally he shoved the letter into his pocket pants then slowly and gingerly pulled out the pendent.

This was Luna's Mother's. She went into the room where her mother and took this for him. She should be wearing this, not him. He shouldn't have this gift; he didn't deserve anything from her. Then he thought about what she was saying?

Something is coming.

Potter falling at the game, the troll in the bathroom, and the incident. He didn't want to think about that. The whispers in his room. He clutched it tightly in both hands and pressed him into his chest. He closed his eyes and tried to think of a quicker way to reach Luna.

"Draco?" Draco knew whose voice that was. Mudblood. No, not Mudblood; Granger.

Draco opened his eyes and saw the _Nifty Lion Gang_ off to the Library or the Garden or Magic fun time where ever. Before he could get a chance to sneer at them, one of them spoke again.

"Everything alright mate?" The Frothy Ginger asked.

He looked out and up towards the sky before he spoke, Periwinkle Pudding and Goose Grey, he barely gathered his thoughts before he spoke.

"My friend sent me this charm in the post," he lifted charm up to them, "she said it's supposed to protect me from something, she says something's coming, and it involves a mirror." His child's voice was rough. They looked at him like he was daft and like he was horribly right about something.

"Anyway, I don't know. I'm worried about her. Be careful." He abruptly turned away from them before they could say anything back. He went off to his room to write a letter to Luna.

**Dear Luna,**

**Thank you for the charm, it's always in my pocket, I promise to keep it safe.**

**Luna please write me back as soon as possible. Strange things are happening at Hogwarts. I believe you. I'm okay, I promise to follow your advice. I'm not an idiot, who goes unknowingly and unprepared into a dangerous situation. Gryffindors, that's who. More spirit than sense. I have this haunting feeling that that's exactly what the Spunky Potter Trio is going to do. **

**I was supposed to be at Potions five minutes ago. Snape likes me, but he's no push over. I have to go now.**

**I miss you, please write me soon.**

**Your friend,**

**Draco**


	7. What does Darjeeling taste like?

**Hey sorry for the short chapter and the long pause before it. Next chapter will be better and longer. I hope.**

Draco ran. He ran as fast as his twelve, almost thirteen as he reminded Luna, year old legs would carry him. Carry him up and over the hill.

Some would say the hill was spattered with varying green, but Draco knew better. In this light, it was more one shade slight green, several blue, mostly a tinted yellow, with the small dying pink and white flowers that would disappear soon, as they often did this time of year.

So it would be wise to avoid steeping on them, so rare and all. Draco didn't care though.

As Draco ran, his dark coat, you know, the one with the green stitching that his mother had got when he returned, well- it flopped wildly near the end in the mild wind. His black child's (nearly thirteen years old) suit case, made from some animal no one could remember the name of, slapped against his leg as he ran up the slight green, tad blue, and mostly yellow hill.

Near the pond, near the tree, near the silly house, to Luna.

"Why did you run all the way up here?"

He looked utterly dejected at the girl who sat near the tree, near the pond, with a candle in her left hand and a lite Popsicle stick in her right.

She wore atomic tangerine, and periwinkle.

"I'm just kidding." Her face split into smile as she continued, "I missed you too Draco." She dropped her burning things and tackled him to the ground in hug.

He smiled and curled his arms around her, the suitcase stabbing into his back.

"What's that smell?" Then he sneered in that way that Luna found adorable.

"Probably grass on fire," she said with no more alarm then one would if it had started to drizzle.

Draco jumped up and stomped on the kindling of a would be forest fire. Once. Twice. Three times. Four. And a wiggle of a burnt shoe. He was still panting, whether it was from the run or the panic, he wasn't sure.

"You should be more careful."

"Why?"

Draco didn't know how to answer that question. He looked exasperated and ran his hands through his floppy blond hair; it had become unruly during his journey.

"Is something wrong? You never wrote me back after that letter, the one, about the thing and the warning and then he came back, you know who. Or that's what they say and I thought you'd left and the charm turned black-"

"My mother's crystal charm I gave you?"

"Yes."

"It turned black?"

"Yeah," Draco sat down next to Luna and pulled the once pastille pinkish-orange-slightly blue-green charm out of his coat pocket. His finger's pulled it out as gracefully as he could manage, but the cold had made his fingers clumpy and numb. He dropped the pendent into her waiting hands.

Luna held it above her eye and let the light shine thought, though not much could. The pendent was a deep black and clouded. The dark swirled around the crystal strands like a storm.

Luna then slipped the leather strap of the charm around her wrist. Once. Twice. Three times. Four. She slipped her hand and wrist into the pocket of her dress, the one with the funny buttons.

"Don't worry, it's supposed to do that," she said as she turned her attention to him again.

"I thought you said you didn't know what it did." He looked worry.

"Did I?"

"Yeah you did."

Luna hugged him into the ground again. She made sounds, Draco thought it sounded a bit like crying.

"Aren't you cold?"

"A little," She wrapped his arm around his middle and he wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

"You can have my coat."

"Thanks but I don't really want to get up," she muttered into the boy's chest. Draco looked down but all he saw was bright pale blonde strands above a black coat.

"My dad's probably in the kitchen crying."

"Does he do that a lot now days?"

"Yeah."

"I think my mom cries too," Draco didn't cry. His father told him it was a sign of weakness or something, Draco tended to fade in out when he talk, he tended to talk quite a bit, but never really with anyone; he just sort of talked at them.

Luna looked up at him and raised one hand to wipe away something wet from his cheek.

"I could be your dad." Luna said in a really soft voice.

"But you're a girl."

"So?" She smiled at him. He smiled at her.

"Okay, but only if I can be your mom," she looked away from him, with a smile on her face.

"I'd like that, but it's probably not a very good idea." The wind blew a bit colder, it was later and later still. Time was a funny thing.

"Yeah."

"How was Hogwarts?"

Draco had thought of all these things to tell her. On the train, in his house, on the way here. He thought of clever things and funny things and things to make her impressed. How he did and the way the light changed the colors on the paint of the walls and the Potter Pals. His classes and how he did so very well in potions. How she would love it and hate it, but it would be okay because they would be together and never cause trouble, because they would be sneaky.

When it went through his head again he got tired of his own voice. He didn't want to talk about it.

"Fine, it was fine. You'd like it."

"Would you like some tea? We brought back Darjeeling."

"Is it good?"

"Yeah I like mine white with two sugars, but that's probably too sweet for you."

"Maybe just a little, but I still want to try it," he closed his eyes, he hadn't realized how sleepy he still was, he was just too excited to have noticed before.

"You'd have to get up if you want some."

"You're the one lying on me you know?" He laughed a bit.

"Can I kiss you?"

"What?" He all but sputtered.

"I said I missed you."

"I missed you too."

Luna stood up and pulled him up with her.

"I can't use magic outside of school, but if I could I would make the tea magic."

She smiled that subdued, but brilliant smile and he all but melted.

"Yeah?"

"I'd make it change colours."

She hummed thoughtfully.

"Can I kiss you?" he said with one hand full of suitcase and the other hand in Luna's as she hurried them through the bushes, that probably scratched up her legs as they went through.

Luan stopped them in the middle of the bushes and spun on heel and toe to face him. He almost fell backwards.

Luna looked at him up and down.

"No," she smiled as he looked a strange mixture of surprise and hurt and something like forgetting it was Christmas.

He was about to say nothing when she tipped her toes up and gave him a soft, short, and innocent kiss on the lips.

"Let's get some tea."

"Okay," the words barely left his mouth.

"Oh by the way, what's in the suitcase?"

"I don't really remember."

"I guess it wasn't very important," she turned the door knob left, then right, then left again before the door opened.

"I guess not," and it wasn't.


End file.
